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Randomness by Deborah J. Bennett. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1998. 238 pp. $22.95.
THE two main topics of this book are probability and randomness. We are presented with a scholarly treatment of both subjects. There is no attempt to teach these subjects. For example, no rules for handling probabilities and no details of how to test for nonrandomness are given. The emphasis is on historical and present-day philosophical viewpoints.
Chapter headings are listed below.
1. Chance Encounters
2. Why Resort to Chance?
3. When the Gods Played Dice
4. Figuring the Odds
5. Mind Games for Gamblers
6. Chance or Necessity?
7. Order in Apparent Chaos
8. Wanted: Random Numbers
9. Randomness as Uncertainty
10. Paradoxes in Probability
The author wanders through a garden of probability problems with the intention of demonstrating that, even simply stated, many such problems are beyond the intuition of most people. A particularly instructive example in Chapter 1 is the following: A taxi was in an accident at night. There are two cab companies., the Green and the Blue. The Green sup@ plies 85% and the Blue supplies 15%, of the taxis. A witness claims that a Blue cab was in the accident. Subsequent testing showed that the witness could correctly identify each of the two colors 80% of the time. What is the probability that the taxi was Blue? People typically, and incorrectly, answer around 80%. For those...